iscovered Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Albert King, and Johnny Winter. WOAH!! Also got my first Fender and began to woodshed and eat. My neighbor Wilf Warkentin, who played way better than me, drug me down the rock-'n'-roll path of least resistance. Played in local bands together while still having our country records at the bottom of our rock & blues stack. After we got our driver's licenses, we hardly saw each other anymore. I continued to be hired and fired many times while still noodling and knowing it all at such a young age.
1977-1985
Ran out of places to noodle in British Columbia, Canada, and relocated to Edmonton, Alberta. Once there and after lots of car trouble and nowhere to live but the car, I hooked up with a trio named 'Picker', headed by drummer /singer Gordon Green, for three years trying to learn how to sing and play at the same time.
Joined the Prairie Fire Band (a 5-piece hard core traditional Country and Western Swing band) with steel guitarist Dick Kruger in '81 for a couple of years, gathering TV and recording experience while studying under Big George Moody (my first live hero). Then entered Danny Hooper and Country Spunk with fiddle phenomenon Calvin Vollrath for another couple of years of hardcoredom. These two bands are where I think I learned a lot of music and business from two of the best band leaders in Canada.
1986-1990
I decided to go to Nashville via California, assuming everybody in Edmonton was sick of my noodling and the U.S. hadn't heard of me yet (hopeful). My first stop was in Redding, CA, at the Saddle Horn Club with Johnny Roberts for a 1-month engagement that ended suddenly with my leaving town in the middle of the night.